August 26, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
177 
the bearer; it shall be returned to you soon, as you may 
need it. Yours truly, D. Black, Borough Coroner.” 
I sent the book by the boy, and it was returned within 
an hour, wrapped up in the same paper. Subsequently 
Dr. Brown called upon me and desired to see the book. 
I then discovered that several of the leaves were missing. 
The missing part did not contain the entry relating to 
the strychnia had by Messrs. Glaisyer and Kemp ; they 
.related to business transactions about six months since. 
The book was perfect when it was fetched by the boy; 
it had not been out of my possession before. Two or 
three days afterwards I received the subjoined note, also 
•contained in a scaled envelope, and brought by another 
•boy. A shilling was enclosed in it:— 
“ Messrs. Glaisyer and Ivcmp will be much obliged if 
Mr. Garrett could supply them with 2 oz. of arsenic, or 
3 oz. if he can. So please send back directly. Their 
.signature will be sufficient. 
“ Glaisyer and Kemp, North Street, July 19th.” 
I did not supply this article, for my suspicions began 
to be aroused. I thought it singular that Messrs. 
Glaisyer and Kemp should send such trifling orders. I 
wrote a note to that effect and sent it by the boy, but 
-received no answer to it. The next morning I went to 
Messrs. Glaisyer and Kemp’s, and in consequence of 
■what occurred on that occasion, I went to the Town Hall 
■and gave information to the police. 
Thomas Glaisyer said : I am a member of the firm of 
f Glaisyer and Kemp, 11 and. 12, North Street, Brighton. 
I have looked at the letters spoken to by Mr. Garrett, 
purporting to come from my firm, and can affirm that 
they were not written by any one connected with our 
establishment. We have not received the strychnia 
.referred to, nor the letter which Mr. Garrett wrote to us. 
Nathaniel Paine Blaker, surgeon, said: I was sent for 
on Saturday evening last, at about half-past seven or 
eight o’clock, to Dr. Beard’s, to attend Margaret Knight. 
She complained of a pain in her stomach and of vomit¬ 
ing. I was told she had been vomiting almost the whole 
of the afternoon. From the symptoms which showed 
themselves, and in consequence of what was told me, 
•and of subsequent observations of her symptoms, I can 
only account for them as the result of some irritant 
poison. Some vomit was shown me in two vessels. 
One contained that which she threw up soon after she 
was taken ill, and the other that which she brought up 
when I was called to attend her. These vessels I had 
placed into a cupboard, together with the other cakes 
■contained in the box, and then sealed up the cupboard. 
Nothing has been done with the vomit since, to my 
knowledge. Arsenic might produce such symptoms, but 
I -would not sw^ear to it. The cook was not so ill as 
Knight. She told me she felt languid, and had a pain 
in her stomach, but there was nothing much in her 
appearance to attract attention. 
The hearing of the case was adjourned. It has been 
■decided to entrust the analysis to Dr. Letheby. A re¬ 
ward having been offered for each of the three boys who 
were sent with notes to Mr. Garrett, two of them have 
Been already found. 
Poisoning by Laudanum. 
At the Clerkenwell Police Court, on Tuesday, Rosina 
Hamilton, a needlewoman, was charged with attempting 
to poison her two illegitimate children by administering 
laudanum. 
A policeman stated that on the previous evening the 
prisoner came into the police station and said she had 
come to give herself up for poisoning her tw r o children. 
He fetched a medical man and w r ent to her house, where 
he found the children in an insensible state, and on the 
table a small milkjug and spoon, both of which had con¬ 
tained laudanum. The prisoner gave him a bottle which 
smelt strongly of laudanum, and said, “ I gave them two 
•pennyworth of laudanum. I bought one pennyworth in 
the Caledonian Road, but I do not know where I got the 
other. I tried to get it at a number of shops, but they 
refused to serve me.” 
Medical evidence was given that the children w r ere 
suffering from opium-poisoning, and that though now 
likely to recover, they would probably have died had 
they not received prompt medical treatment. 
The prisoner was remanded. 
Poisoning by Oil of Vitriol. 
On Wednesday evening an inquest was held at Upper 
Norwood, touching the death of John Barman Messen¬ 
ger, aged eight years. The deceased was the son of a 
fruiterer residing at 3, Chatham Terrace, Upper Nor¬ 
wood. The father w r as accustomed to clean the shop 
scales with vitriol, and on Friday last sent one of his 
errand boys to purchase a pennyworth. He shortly 
afterwards left, and on his return found that two pairs 
of scales had been cleaned. The vitriol w'as in a ginger- 
beer bottle. He sold ginger-beer. Witness found de¬ 
ceased suffering acutely, complaining of great pain in 
his chest. He was taken to Dr. Brockwell, w T ho pro¬ 
nounced it a case of poisoning by sulphuric acid. He 
was then taken home, and expired the following day. 
The children were in the habit of helping themselves to 
the ginger-beer. He had no doubt the bottle containing 
the poison had by some inadvertence got mixed with the 
other bottles on the counter, and the deceased had drunk 
a portion. Verdict—Accidentally poisoned.— Standard. 
CoMMENTAR ZUR OE3TERREICHISCHEN PhARMACOPOE. By 
Dr. J. C. Schneider and Dr. A. Vogl. 
Second Xotice. 
The special part of pharmacognosy opens with Class 
I., remedies which are directly recognized as plants or 
parts of plants ; these are divided into tw r o sections, viz. 
Thallophytica and Cormophytica, the first comprising 
three Orders, (1) Fungi, (2) Lichens, (3) Algee; the last 
nine Orders, (4) Herbie, (5) Folia, (6) Gemmae, (7) Flores, 
(8) Fructus, (9) Semina, (10) Cortices, Stipites et Ligna, 
(11) Radices, Rhizomata, Tubcra et Bulbi, (12) Gallae. 
The names of the single articles under these Orders 
are given in Latin, German, French and English, and 
with very few exceptions, these names are given cor¬ 
rectly. 
The authors expressly state they have not limited 
themselves to a description of substances embodied in 
the Austrian Pharmacopoeia, but they have included 
many antiquated remedies still in request, and also new 
articles which are likely to become important in phar¬ 
macy and medicine. A clear distinction in the type of 
the headings separates at once the officinal from the non- 
officinal remedies. 
Each of the twelve Orders is prefaced by a description 
of the general characteristics, botanical, chemical, phy¬ 
sical, or microscopical, and we shall take opportunity of 
reporting on some of these prefaces in due time. 
Under Fungi, the most important and the first on the 
list, is— 
Fungus secalis. Secale ccreal-e , Linn. Ergot of Rye. 
It chiefly consists of a dirty-white tissue, enclosed in 
a thin dark violet skin; it contains 31 per cent, of a 
colourless fatty oil in small globules, soluble in ether, 
chloroform and boiling alcohol. Wenzell separated in 
1864 two alkaloids from ergot, viz. ecbolino and ergotine, 
combined with ergotic acid. The specific action ot ergot 
appears to be due to ecboline, inasmuch as half a grain 
was found to be as powerful as 20 grains of ergot; er¬ 
gotine is less active. Wcnzell also proved the presence, 
of phosphate of trimethylamin, which, on addition of 
potash, gives the peculiar smell of herrings. 
